San Antonio needs to find its offense to win Game 5 tonight, or this series will be over in a couple days.

It falls to the Spurs’ big three — Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili need to get free and penetrate the lane to break down the Thunder defense, Tim Duncan just has to play a better all around game.

It’s not that the Spurs offense was bad in Game 4 — they shot 50 percent and scored 112 points per 100 possessions. You look at that most times and say that’s good enough to win, you’d say the Spurs need to tighten up their defense. And their defense should look better in Game 5 because Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison are not going to combine to go 22-for-25 shooting again in our lifetimes. That was the Game 4 outlier.

But there is another bigger issue at play here — San Antonio can’t stop Oklahoma City. San Antonio’s defense has been good enough to win all season because it just had to slow teams enough and their offense would blow them out of the water. Their defense was good enough to take Chris Paul out of the equation and force the other Clippers to step up and they were not ready as a team.

Oklahoma City is different. They have maybe the game’s best pure scorer in Kevin Durant. They have the ultra aggressive, attacking Russell Westbrook. They have James Harden. They are going to get a lot of points every night one way or another.

If San Antonio is going to win Game 5, they need to get their offense back to where it was the first couple games. Which means Gregg Popovich and staff need to find a way to free up Parker and Ginobili. With Thabo Sefolosha’s long arms to start and Serge Ibaka on the switch off of picks, San Antonio’s driving lanes have been taken away. When the Thunder defense gets set with its long athletes, the Spurs are less effective.

Which is why they need to run — not fast break points but run drag screens and other sets early in the shot clock before the defense gets its bearings. Exploit the mismatches before the Thunder can recover. You are right that the Spurs don’t want to get in a pure track meet with the Thunder, but in the regular season the Spurs played at almost the same pace and were more efficient. They need to go fast.

For Oklahoma City, they also will need more from their stars — their role players will not duplicate that kind of scoring on the road. But the Spurs can’t stop Durant. Nobody can. And he with Westbrook and Harden will have to carry this team to be the first squad to beat the Spurs in San Antonio these playoffs.

Do and they will be on the doorstep of playing for a ring. But the Spurs have those rings and know what it takes.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Russell Westbrook had his seventh consecutive triple-double Friday night in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s game against the Houston Rockets, the longest streak since Michael Jordan had seven straight in 1989.

Westbrook got his 10th rebound with 7:46 left in the fourth quarter. He already had 16 points and 10 assists. Westbrook finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.

The Thunder won the first six games during his streak, however they fell to James Harden and the Rockets 102-99. Harden was one rebound short of his own triple-double.

It was Westbrook’s 12th triple-double of the season and the 49th of his career. He is the NBA’s active leader in the category and ranks overall.

NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA has denied the Toronto Raptors’ protest of their 102-99 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 20.

The league announced the decision Friday.

Toronto argued that the game officials incorrectly called for an instant replay review of whether the Raptors’ Terrence Ross released a 3-point shot prior to the expiration of actual time remaining.

The Replay Center official reviewed video of the play using a digital timer and determined the actual time remaining in the game expired before Ross released his shot, and the shot therefore did not count.

The league found that calling for an instant replay review in this case was consistent with the playing rules because the game officials determined that there was a clock malfunction.

You probably answered “the Clippers.” Most fans do. So do most NBA referees — And everyone else. Which is why after a recent loss to Golden State, veteran Marreese Speight (a Warrior last season) pointed to the Clippers complaining about the officiating as part of the problem.

He went on to say that the scouting report is you can get in the Clippers’ heads by knocking them around a little. Which seems pretty obvious when you watch teams play them. Shockingly, Clippers coach Doc Rivers disagrees with that. Via NBCLosAngeles.com.

“The officiating thing, I don’t think, is our issue. I will say that,” said Rivers about the technical fouls. “If that were the problem, then, Golden State would be struggling. They’ve been No. 2 the last two years in techs, too. I think we need to point fingers in another direction than that.”

Doc may not like it, but Speights is right.

The Warriors do complain too much, but they also have a ring so more is forgiven. The problem for the Clippers is that reputation for complaining starts with Rivers — he complains as much or more than any coach in the league. Then it filters down through Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

Is it fair that more is forgiven with winning? Moot question. Welcome to America. The Clippers complain a lot and have yet to get past the second round with this core. And at times there standing there complaining to the referees does get in the way of them getting back into defense, and they seem to go in a funk.